A 38 year old single heterosexual female, sans husband, sets off on an adoption journey, hoping to become mother to an Ethiopian infant. All relevant topics may be discussed, such as international adoption, attachment parenting, transracial adoption, etc.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Holy Crap, Charlie Has Been Hospitalized!

Last night at 11PM she started laboring to breathe so hard that her skin was being sucked into her little ribcage and her temp was up to 103. I decided to risk the ice and brought her to the ER. It's not whooping cough... They don't know what it is. Her oxygen was 83 upon arrival (they like over 90). She was transferred to the pedeatric unit at 3AM and is on oxygen and a nebulizer every 4 hours. She is miserable. There are no cribs left so both of us are sharing a twin. She is pathetic. I almost cried seeing her with tubes. The Dr said I did the right thing bringing her in, and that we will have to stay for AT LEAST another night. Ugh. I'm beyond exhausted. Her monitor was broken and the alarm went off every 2 minutes from 3AM to 5AM. Then workmen came to fix it. Then breakfast arrived. Then vitals. Then another nebulizer treatment. Then she cried for awhile... It's 10AM and I'm going to TRY and see if she'll nap.I'm super anxious about the dogs who need to be fed and let out. If they would let me leave here I could bring the dogs to a kennel... And pick up some toothpaste and jammies for us both. But they say they have no one to watch Charlie while I'm gone. Sigh. Single parenting rears it's ugly head again.Pls send me comments to keep me occupied :-) I didn't even bring a book as I had no idea we'd be staying for days.

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4 comments:

Heather van Raalte
said...

Oh no!!! Hope they have figured out what's wrong and that Charlie's responding well to treatment. I can't imagine how hard it would be to have a child in the hospital and no crib!! You must be beyond exhausted!!!

oh no! poor charlie! i hope she is feeling better soon. and poor you to see her sick and not know what's going on. maybe one of your friends can come by for the key to your house to take care of your dogs and bring you a book, tp and jammies?

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Facts from Ethiopia

CHILDREN'S STATUSNewborns dying before age 1 - 1 in 10Children dying before age 5, often from preventable diseases -1 in 6Main causes of early childhood deaths -Diarrhea and pneumoniaOrphans, 2003 estimate -4 millionChildren under age 5 stunted from lack of nutrition - Over 50%High school attendance, females - 8.5%Population with use of adequate sanitation facilities - 15% Rural population with use of adequate sanitation facilities - 4% Population with use of improved drinking water sources - 24% Population with access to public health facilities - 61.3% Population more than 10 km (6 miles) from nearest health facility - Over 50%Physicians per 100,000 people - 3Population moderately to severely underweight - 38% Population stunted due to lack of nutrition - 47%

HIV/AIDSAdults infected weekly - 5,000Age group with highest rate of infection 15-24 years; female prevalence 3 times greater than among malesWomen living with HIV, 15-49 -770,000Mother-to-child HIV transmission - 2nd highest number of new infections per yearChildren dying from AIDS - 1 in 16Children orphaned by AIDS from 2003 to 2007 - 720,000